Where are they now? Here are six

Ever wonder how the people faced with challenges turned out? So do we, and we followed up on six of them.

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

Vindicator reporters cross paths with hundreds of people every year and print thousands of names.

Those names, many times, wind up in short stories and eventually fade in memory. But occasionally the staff comes across someone with an especially compelling tale — one that we hope generates reader chatter and even leads people to ask, “Whatever happened to ...”

LATANYA FOSTER

LaTanya Foster, 33, a 1992 graduate of Youngstown East High School, underwent lap-band surgery Aug. 15, 2006, to lose weight to become eligible for a lifesaving kidney transplant.

At the time, Foster weighed 275 pounds and had a body mass index of about 40. Most facilities require a BMI of 35 or less before they will do a transplant. When The Vindicator wrote about Foster in September 2007, she weighed 222 pounds and was eligible for a transplant. Now, she is down to 210 pounds but still has not received a new kidney.

On Dec. 13, Foster had surgery to install a catheter in her stomach that will allow her to do peritoneal dialysis at home rather than going for 4 1/2 hours a day, three times a week, to a dialysis center for hemodialysis.

In hemodialysis, blood is passed through an artificial kidney machine to clean it and returned to the body. Peritoneal dialysis uses a filtration process similar to hemodialysis, but the blood is cleaned inside the body by using the peritoneal membrane as a filter. Peritoneal dialysis can often be done at night, while sleeping.

While she has not found a matching kidney, Foster said she remains hopeful. She is registered with LifeBanc, the organ retrieval organization for Northeast Ohio, and said that anyone who wants to donate a kidney can contact her at (330) 881-1636.

MARINE CPL. JEREMIAH HILL

Marine Cpl. Jeremiah Hill, 22, formerly of Struthers, has been wounded twice in Iraq by improvised explosive devices, suffering severe concussions both times and a back injury in the second explosion. He was first injured July 14, 2006, while driving a Hummer, and again on Aug. 24, 2007, while on foot.

Hill, the son of Barbara and Rick Hill of Austintown, is stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he works in a gym on base and goes to therapy for his injuries. He is hoping to be transferred to the Wounded Warrior Center, and may receive a medical discharge in the future.

Hill and his wife, the former Danielle Guzzo of Youngstown, have a daughter, Hannah Mackenzie Hill, who was born July 4, 2007. Danielle works as a cashier at a Wal-Mart in California.

LORI GRISDALE MARSH

A Canfield woman who underwent a bone marrow transplant for acute myleogenous leukemia is feeling much better these days.

“I’m feeling so good,” Lori Grisdale Marsh said recently from her hospital room at the Cleveland Clinic, where she’s been for the past seven weeks.

“It’s unbelievable. They call me “iron woman.”

Grisdale Marsh endured seven straight days of chemotherapy to destroy all her own bone marrow. After a day of rest, she got her transplant, which took about 30 minutes. Her donor is a woman in her 40s from Europe. That’s all Grisdale Marsh knows about her.

The week after the transplant was tough, she said. “Your immune system is down to nothing,” she said, and she was very tired.

“Those two weeks — I don’t remember a lot,” she said.

But in two more weeks after a transplant, she said, engraftment occurs. That’s when the donor’s cells start to grow and take over.

She said counts of red and white blood cells and platelets start to go up, and hers have.

“Last night, they doubled,” she said, and doctors are happy with her progress so far.

She’s been given a pass to leave her hospital room and walk around. “I can go to the cafeteria.”

Now, Grisdale Marsh is looking forward to getting out of the hospital, though she’ll still have to stay in Cleveland for two more months. She’ll be across the street from the hospital at a hotel.

BRIAN KEITH WEST

Brian Keith West of Youngstown launched “It Starts Here,” a program designed to reach out to young people while providing them with activities to keep them off the streets, in 2006 at New Bethel Baptist Church.

He’s now working on a plan to deal with violence and what he perceives to be the city’s negative image.

West, 25, is the self-published author of “The Method Eight II: The Messenger,” in which he puts forth his theories about the power of the mind and how it affects reality and time, and is the key to the universe.

The Chaney graduate, Navy veteran and U.S. Postal Service employee has moved “It Starts Here” to a downtown office in the National City Bank building and intends to take the program national through an online campaign.

He has also embarked on a plan to put religion back into the schools.

Religion gives an understanding of life, a conscience and a moral basis, he said.

Children need that solid groundwork to deal with decisions they face today, West said, explaining that type of background could go a long way toward ending violence.

EVYENIA SPENCER

Evyenia Spencer, 10-year-old fourth-grader at Poland North Elementary, has been deemed a “Safest Kid in America” twice and has decided to now let others have a chance at the title.

Evyenia, daughter of Joe and Irene Spencer, won the title in 2004 and again in 2006 in national contests sponsored by the Safe America Foundation in Atlanta.

She’s eligible to enter the contest again but has decided to let others try their skill at winning, said her mother.

Evyenia was one of only two winners in 2004 with her poster on driveway safety for children, and was one of six winners in 2006 with a poster urging all states to adopt booster-seat laws for passengers 4 to 9 years old.

The contest, open to children 5 to 13, has drawn more than 10 million entries over the last nine years.

Evyenia is still interested in contests and continues to enter various competitions, doing quite well in the process, her mother said.

CONNIE HARTMAN

The Vindicator periodically runs a brief story with the telephone number, (330) 399-4395, but the person behind the number is seldom mentioned.

It’s the number of 55-year-old Connie Hartman of Stewart Drive, Warren.

For two years, she has spearheaded the effort to collect aluminum cans to raise money to help with the medical expenses of Douglas Coward, 17, of Newton Falls, who was badly burned in a house fire in 2004.

She decided to help because she and Douglas’ mother, Elizabeth Coward, were friends before the fire.

Since January 2005, Hartman has overseen the collection of 7,059 pounds of aluminum during eight collections which have brought in about $6,000. The money is used to make the insurance co-payments for Douglas’ medical treatments.

She also collects can tabs for the National Kidney Foundation. Hartman is now getting cans and tabs from people in North Lima and Columbiana who want to help the teenager with his treatments.

“I’ll keep doing it as long as it’s needed,” Hartman said, noting that if the Cowards no long need the money, she’ll find someone else who does.